1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle that is installed in a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-080850 discloses an air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle that includes an air-conditioning duct through which the air to be supplied to the interior of the vehicle passes, and a heater and an evaporator that are provided in the air-conditioning duct.
In such a conventional air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, the air in the air-conditioning duct is pressure-fed by a blower fan provided at an intake port, and thereby flows through the duct. When the motive power source of the vehicle is in operation, the heater serves as a warm heat exchanger and the evaporator serves as a cool heat exchanger. The air flowing through the air-conditioning duct is cooled by the evaporator and heated by the heater, and is blown out from a blowout port to the interior. The temperature and humidity of the interior can be adjusted in a situation where the motive power source of the vehicle is in operation.
However, in such a conventional air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, it is necessary to mix the air heated by the heater and other air, such as the air simply cooled by the evaporator, in the air-conditioning duct to equalize the temperature, etc. of the air to be blown out to some extent, for example. The air-conditioning duct has to be provided with, downstream of the heater, a passage with a long enough length to mix the airs. Consequently, the air-conditioning duct is increased in size.
Thus, for the air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, it is required to suppress the size increase of the air-conditioning duct so that the occupied volume thereof in the space of the interior is kept at a low level even when the air-conditioning duct is installed in the interior of the vehicle.